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Toyota signs multi-year sponsorship deal for NASCAR races at Richmond

December 5, 2012

Toyota will be a race sponsor at Richmond. The car maker has been in the Sprint Cup Series since 2007. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Longtime, hardcore fans may not like it, but two of Richmond International Raceway’s three spring NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races will be sponsored by Toyota. RIR, one of NASCAR’s most venerable and popular tracks (its first Cup race was in 1953), recently announced its multi-year sponsorship package with Toyota.

To many fans, the Japanese-owned company is still considered “the dark side,” and has no business in American stock car racing, even though the Toyota Camry was rated the “most American” car among all three NASCAR Sprint Cup models by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in its 2011 report.

The Camry, which is assembled in Georgetown, Ky., was rated as the most American car by the NHTSA in 2011, with 80 percent American parts. The Ford Fusion, which is moving its assembly operation from Mexico to Flat Rock, Mich., for the 2013 model, was rated as just 20 percent American. The Chevy SS is built in Australia, but is not yet rated by the NHTSA since its first production model year will not be until 2014.

Nevertheless, the ToyotaCare Nationwide Series 250 will be on Friday night, April 26, and the Toyota Owners Sprint Cup 400 will be on Saturday night, April 27. In recent years RIR’s sponsorship deals included Pontiac, Chevrolet, Crown Royal, Federated Auto Parts, Air National Guard, Virginia Tourism, Exide, Miller and Wonderful Pistachios. The 3/4-mile track will host the K&N East Pro Series on Thursday night, April 25.

“This [Toyota] partnership allows us to align with a premium brand that has been supporting NASCAR for nearly a decade,” said RIR president Dennis Bickmeier. “These multi-year entitlements will allow [RIR] to continue delivering the high-quality events our fans have enjoyed for 60 years. To put on these NASCAR spectacles, we require two core ingredients: the fans and the sponsors—both of which drive our business and allow us to provide top-notch events.”

Toyota made its NASCAR debut in 2004 by fielding teams in the Camping World Truck Series. After three successful years there, it moved full-time into the Cup Series with Camrys fielded by Bill Davis Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Team Red Bull. Toyota got the first of its 49 Sprint Cup wins at Atlanta in the spring of 2008, when Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart finished 1-2 in Camrys.